The website for the book Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles' Solo Careers
When John Lennon informed manager Brian Epstein that he planned to tell the audience of the Queen’s Royal Variety Performance to “rattle their fuckin’ jewelry,” Epstein worried despite himself. He knew even John Lennon would not dare curse before royalty. But then again, there was always the possibility Lennon might somehow sabotage the entire Beatle operation.
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When the Beatles were given the rare luxury of time off in September 1963, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia went to Paris, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr went to Greece, and George Harrison traveled to Benton, Ill., a coal-mining town of 9,500, to visit his older sister, Louise “Lou” Caldwell. The Beatles were still almost completely unknown in the United States, and Lou, who had moved to southern Illinois with her husband, a mining engineer, was keen to promote them to the Top 40 radio stations in the region.
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When Lennon and McCartney skipped school to write songs as teenagers, they envisioned themselves becoming a great composing team like Leiber and Stoller or Rodgers and Hammerstein. In 1963 and 1964, they gave their best shot at it, not only writing songs for the Beatles but giving away 16 compositions to other artists, including the Rolling Stones. Half were originally written for themselves, and half they wrote for other artists under Brian Epstein’s management—such as Billy J. Kramer and Cilla Black—or for the pop duo Peter and Gordon.
In the U.K. two of the songs were No. 1s and ten more made it to the Top 40, while in the U.S. one hit the top spot and five more made the Top 40—an impressive record for any songwriting team. It’s true that they abound in puppy love clichés, but they also reveal the composers’ growing sophistication.
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(Cilla Black pictured with Lennon and McCartney in home page photo)
“Love Me Do” was released on October 5, 1962, so in honor of the Fabs’ Golden Anniversary, here’s a couple of stories on the song and its reverberations, along with one of the group’s best (unreleased) rockers from the period, “Some Other Guy.”
This is a new piece by Philip Norman, author of one of the best Beatles books, SHOUT!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/04/beatles-love-me-do-fifty-years?fb=optOut
Saw this story on the great Facebook page FAB FOUR FAQ 2.0 … The Beatles’ manager ran a big record store so he bought 10,000 copies of their first single “Love Me Do” to make sure they got in the Top 20. No doubt the best investment he ever made … Supposedly back in the ’40s they got Sinatra-mania started by paying some bobbysoxers to scream, so I guess you gotta spend a little cash to get the ball rolling …
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19714392
For some reason the Beatles never issued their cover of “Some Other Guy” on an album, though a live version was included on their 1994 compilation LIVE AT THE BBC. That version is matched here with footage of them performing in the Cavern Club on August 22, 1962, a week after Ringo joined, and two weeks before they recorded “Love Me Do” at EMI Studios on September 4.
The song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (“Hound Dog,” “Jail House Rock,” “Stand By Me,” “On Broadway”) along with the original artist Richie Barrett, heavily influenced by Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say.”
Ringo officially became a Beatle on August 18, 1962. Here’s a great interview with Beatles biographer Bob Spitz about how it was only when Ringo replaced Pete Best that the group coalesced into the Fab Four that would take the world by storm (from FaceCulture).
Spitz: “By the time I finished working on the book eight and half years later, I realized the true hero of the Beatles’ story was Ringo Starr. He was a lovely guy, the other Beatles loved him unconditionally, he never had a bad word to say about anybody, he loved being a Beatle, he was a fantastic drummer, and he only ever wanted what was best for the group. And so Ringo, I think, is the true hero of this book and for me he came out at the end as really the character I could identify with the most. And, funnily enough, I found out that when the Beatles first came to the United States, they were selling those buttons, ‘I love John,’ ‘I love Paul.’ The ‘I love Ringo’ buttons out sold the others five to one. So maybe Ringo has all the magic of the story, maybe he isn’t just the luckiest man alive.”
Walt Disney wanted the Beatles to voice the vultures of The Jungle Book and gave them mop-top haircuts, but Lennon nixed the idea, as he was already unhappy with their Saturday morning cartoon. Still, Lennon seemed to have the vultures’ theme – “That’s What Friends Are For” – in his head when it came time to write the requisite Ringo song for the next album, Sgt Pepper.
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